Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1887-11-23
Chasing 4 Mirage.

Z \
San Francisco Examiner: One sum
mer morning twehty-one years ago, IN
the upper North Platte country, rose
from my blankets, performed o pious
act Of SUN worship by yawning toward
the east, kicked together the parted
embers Of my camp fire, and bcthought
me of water for my ablutioRs. We
had gone into bivouac late in the night
on the open plain and without any
clear notion of where we were. There
were d half dozen Of us, the leader be-
ing the late Gen. Hazen, at the time Of
his death, a year ago, chief signal off
ficer. He vas then on tour of in
spection of the new military posts i'd
Montana, and | accompanied the ex-5
pedition as surveyor. Having an in
SEPARATION for water, l naturally looked
about to see what might be the pros
poets of obtaining 1t, and. to my STIR
prise and delight, saw long line Of
willows, apparently some 800 yards
away. Willows implied water, and,
snatching up camp kettle, I started
forward without taking the trouble to
put or my coat and hat. For
the first mile or two, / persevefed
certain cheerful hopefulness. but
when the sun had risen further toward
the meridian and hsgan to effect my
bare head most uncomfortably, and the
picketed horses at the camp we're hull
down on the horizon in the rear, and
the willows in front increased their
pace out of all proportion to mine, be-
gan to grow discouraged and sat down
on stone to wish myself back. Per-
ceiving that the willows had also
halted for breath. determined to make
dash at them, leaving the camp ket-
tie behind to make IFS way back as best
it could to my hat and coat. Twas now
travelling flying light and had no
boubt of my ability to ove1take the
enemy, which had, however, disap-
peared over the crest of a low sand
hill. Ascending this I was treated to
a surprise Right and left of me lay a
barren waste of sand extending to the
right and left as far as could see. Its
width in the direction that was going
l Judged to be about twenty miles. On
it's further border the cactus plain be-
gan again, sleping gradually toward
the horizon, along which was a fringe
of cedar trees-the willows of my WIS.,
ion! In that country u cedar will not
grow within thirty miles OF water If it
knows it.
On my return journey | coldly ig-
Rored the appeals of the camp kettle,
and when met the rescuing party.
which had been for some hours trailing
me, made no allusion to the real pur-
pose of my excursion. When Hazen
asked if intended to enter a plea of
temporary insanity, | replied that 1
would reserve my defense for the pres
ent, and in fact I never did disclose ii
until now.
had afterward the satisfaction of
seeing Hazen, an experienced plains
man, consume full hour, rifle in hand,
working around to the leeward Of a
dead coyote in the sure and certain
hope of bagging a sleeping buffalo.
Mirage or no mirage you must not tGo
implicitly trust your eyes in'the fantas-
tic atmosphere of the high plains.
remember one forenoon / looked
forward to the base of the Big Horn
mountains and selected q most engag-
ing nook for the nights camp. Ny
good opinion of it was confirmed when
we reached it three days later. THE
deception in this instance was due to
nothing but the marvellous lucidity OF
the atmosphere and the absence of Oh
Jects of known dimensions, and these
sources of error are sometimes sufiic-
lent of themselves to produce the most
incredible illusions. When they are
in alliance with the mirage the com,
bination's pranks are simply bewilder-
ing.